Enterprise: The First Adventure by Vonda McIntyre (Star Trek Giant Novel, 1986)

James T. Kirk has just been promoted to captain, the youngest captain in the history of Starfleet, and given command of the Enterprise succeeding the highly decorated Christopher Pike, promoted to Commodore and given command of a Starbase. Kirk is but 29 but has already been a hero in the service, and has just emerged from regen (regeneration) for injuries suffered in the service. His friend Gary Mitchell is still in regen from the same campaign, and is unable to join as first officer, as they had planned. Kirk instead takes his rehab doctor, Leonard McCoy, as chief medical officer, and grudgingly accepts the Vulcan Pike recommends as first officer. Spock is similarly unenthusiastic about having the emotional Kirk as captain, after the more analytical Pike. And Chief Engineer Scott is even less happy about the change. It doesn’t help that a raw rookie, Sulu, is the new helm officer.

For the first mission, Admiral Nogura has given Kirk a “milk run,” ferrying an entertainment group out to the outer reaches toward Starbase 13 on a “USO tour.” Kirk is attracted to the young manager of the group, but frustrated not to have a stronger exploration assignment for his first duty. Then, the Enterprise comes upon a huge ship, soon termed a “worldship,” with a whole new alien civilization inside. And in the meantime, there is a Klingon renegade with a captured prototype ship looking to make trouble.

McIntyre’s strengths as a writer are dialogue and characterization, and she uses them to present this story. Her weakness is plot, and that is evident as well. This would work, except that she is dealing with established characters, and her characterizations of many of the familiar Star Trek characters simply do not match up with the established behavior patterns. McIntyre frequently and well uses a story device of having a conversation between two characters, given from one’s point of view and giving us that character’s thoughts, then switching the other character and following them after the conversation and getting their viewpoint. This is an effective technique, but it also shows that the author has no feel for Scotty, as she never visits his “mind” in this way.

Besides Scotty, Kirk is out of character here. I would speculate that his behavior is not appreciated by a feminist author, and thus his abilities are downplayed. Kirk seems ineffectual here, as he does in most of McIntyre’s books, as well as emotionally clueless. The author makes a point that Kirk is uncomfortable speaking in front of crowds. This is contrary to his behavior in any number of TV episodes and movies as well, where Kirk never passes up a chance to make a speech.

This book is actually written more for the non-Star Trek fan than for fans of the series. The book features the standard characters, while ignoring many that were in the pilot episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Uhura and McCoy didn’t appear there at all, and characters such as Mitchell were featured. A number of characters were killed off in the pilot, never to appear again, and I would have liked to see an adventure with Mitchell, Kelso, and others from that era, and maybe even some holding over from the original pilot with Captain Pike, like Number One. Yeoman Rand appears, but is given a background much like that given to “Next Generation” character Tasha Yar, and a personality at odds with her appearance in the show. This is a common complaint in the book.

The comic book version of the first voyage of the Enterprise under Kirk was much more successful, and I recommend that version to you. It was published as an annual by DC Comics.

The book is historically significant as the first "giant" novel, and the precursor to the hardbacks. It was also, I belive, the last ST novel by McIntyre. J.M. Dillard would soon become Trek's go-to writer.